Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1016446

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016446

The old kirkyard rests on a little knoll opposite the present parish kirk of 1789, within the policies of the splendidly baronial Cluny Castle. Its most striking feature is the splendid neo-classical mausoleum of 1808 to Miss Elyza Fraser of Castle Fraser (no. 21). Designed by her friend, the aesthete James Byers of Tonley (to whom she left her carriage and best pair of horses), it is of granite ashlar, circular in plan, sitting on a low plain square podium and rising to a tall, domed roof. The doorway is narrow and high, with an intricate wrought-iron grille, surmounted by a fine triangular heraldic panel. Around the frieze in elegant capitals is the inscription ELIZABETH FRASER OF CASTLE FRASER MDCCCVIII. It cost £353 and is the finest classical tomb in the north-east. Byers planned to be interred in a similar tomb but subsequently changed his will. In front of the mausoleum stand four mortsafes, consisting of iron cages which would have enclosed the coffin in the grave, topped by massive slabs of granite which would have been extremely difficult to shift clandestinely. Such weighty mortsafes required block and tackle to manoeuvre them into the grave; a set is preserved in Inverurie Museum.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Aberdeen and North-East Scotland’, (1996).